DAY 20: Evaluating a recitation

Today, we covered the next five words of Unit 3 in the vocabulary book, and Review Exercises for Lessons 4-6 in the sentence diagramming work book. We talked about each of the terms the grammar book has covered so far: helping verbs, modal auxiliaries, linking verbs, predicate nominatives, predicate adjectives, attributive adjectives and possessive pronouns.

Then, we looked at the criteria for judging poetry presentations. The information below is taken from the Poetry Out Loud website:

For Students: Evaluation Criteria

PHYSICAL PRESENCE
This category is to evaluate the physical nature of the recitation. Consider the contestant's posture, use of eye contact, and body language.

Advice for the student:

• Use good posture and be attentive.
• Look confident.
• Engage your audience. Look them in the eye. If you have trouble with that, focus past them to the far wall and keep your head up.

Qualities of a strong recitation:
The competitor will appear at ease and comfortable with the audience. He or she will engage the audience through physical presence, including great body language, confidence, and eye contact—without appearing artificial. All qualities of the contestant's physical presence will work together to the benefit of the poem. Nervous gestures, poor posture, and lack of confidence or eye contact with the audience will detract from a competitor's score.

VOICE AND ARTICULATION
This category is to evaluate the the auditory nature of the recitation. Consider the student's volume, speed, use of voice inflection, and proper pronunciation. At the National Finals, contestants will use a microphone; when appropriate, one should be used in school and state competitions as well.

Advice for the student:

• Project to the audience. You want to capture the attention of everyone, including the people in the back row.
• Proceed at an appropriate and natural pace. People may speak or express themselves too quickly when they are nervous, which can make a recitation difficult to understand. Speak slowly, but not so slowly that the language sounds unnatural or awkward.
• With rhymed poems, be careful not to recite in a sing-song manner.
• Make sure you know how to pronounce every word in your poem. Articulate.
• Line breaks are a defining feature of poetry, with each one calling for different treatment. Decide if a break requires a pause and, if so, how long to pause.

Qualities of a strong recitation:
All words will be pronounced correctly, and the volume, speed, pacing, and phrasing will greatly enhance the poem. Pacing will be varied where appropriate. Scores will be lowered as a recitation falls short on one or more of these elements.

APPROPRIATENESS OF DRAMATIZATION
Recitation is about conveying a poem's sense primarily with one's voice. In this way, recitation is closer to the art of oral interpretation than theatrical performance. (Think storyteller or narrator rather than actor [get in touch with your inner Morgan Freeman].) Students may find it challenging to convey the meaning of a poem without acting it out, but a strong performance will rely on a powerful internalization of the poem rather than distracting dramatic gestures. The reciter represents the poet's voice during the course of a recitation, not a character's. The videos of outstanding student recitations (as well as examples of poets reading their own work) will help illustrate this point. Appropriate dramatization subtly enhances the audience's understanding and enjoyment of the poem without overshadowing the poem's language.

Advice for the student:

• Do not act out the poem. Too much dramatization can distract your audience from the language of the poem. Your goal should be to help audience members understand the poem more deeply than they had before hearing your recitation. Movement or accents should not detract from the author's voice.
• You are the vessel of your poem. Have confidence that your poem is strong enough to communicate its sounds and messages without a physical illustration. In other words, let the words of the poem do the work.
• Depending on the poem, occasional gestures may be appropriate, but the line between appropriate and overdone is a thin one. When uncertain, leave them out.
• Avoid monotone delivery. If you sound bored, you will project that boredom onto the audience. However, too much enthusiasm can make your performance seem insincere.

Qualities of a strong recitation:
The dramatization subtly highlights the meaning of the poem without becoming the focal point of the recitation. The performance is more about oral interpretation than dramatic enactment. A low score in this category will result from recitations that have affected character voices and accents, inappropriate tone, distracting and excessive gestures, or unnecessary emoting.

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY
This category is to evaluate the comparative difficulty of the poem, which is the result of several factors. A poem with difficult content conveys complex, sophisticated ideas, which the student will be challenged to grasp and express. A poem with difficult language will have complexity of diction and syntax, meter and rhyme scheme, and shifts in tone or mood. Poem length is also a factor in difficulty. Every poem is a different combination of content, language, and length, and the judges should score accordingly based on their independent evaluation of each poem.

Advice for the student:
For competitions beyond the classroom level, select poems of various styles, time periods, and tones. This diversity of selection will offer a richer and more complete performance. Note the additional poem-selection requirements for state and national contests.

EVIDENCE OF UNDERSTANDING
This category is to evaluate whether the performer exhibits an understanding of the poem in his or her recitation.

Advice for the student:

• In order for the audience to understand the poem fully, the performer must understand the poem fully. Be attentive to the messages, meanings, allusions, irony, tones of voice, and other nuances in your poem.
• Be sure you know the meaning of every word and line in your poem. If you are unsure about something, it will be apparent to the audience and judges. Don't hesitate to ask your teacher for help.
• Listen to track 4 on the audio CD in which poet David Mason introduces Yeats "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." In his comments, he advises you to think about how you should interpret the tone and volume and voice of your poem. Is it a quiet poem? Is it a boisterous poem? Should it be read more quickly or slowly, with a happy or mournful tone? Your interpretation will be different for each poem, and it is a crucial element of your performance. [This is very reminiscent of the tone work we did on DAY 19. See that blog entry for details]

Qualities of a strong recitation:
The meaning of the poem will be powerfully and clearly conveyed to the audience. The student will display an interpretation that deepens and enlivens the poem. Meaning, messages, allusions, irony, tones of voice, and other nuances will be captured by the performance. A low score will be awarded if the interpretation obscures the meaning of the poem.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE
This category is to evaluate the overall success of the recitation, taking into account the above criteria, the Diversity of poem selection, and any other factors that may impact a judge's perception of the student's performance. Note that points in this category are doubled in weight. [This is a gut check grade and takes into account certain intangibles, like attitude and confidence. You have a sense of it when people are performing at their best, and when a performance makes the audience better for having seen it. As you continue to look at other poems recited, try to articulate exactly what goes into this gut check.]

ACCURACY
A separate judge will mark missed or incorrect words during the recitation, with small deductions for each. If the contestant relies on the Prompter, points also will be subtracted from the accuracy score. Eight points will be added to the competitor's score for a perfect recitation.


After covering this material, I then had you work in small groups to evaluate two performances (click here to see the videos). By the end of class, you were more comfortable employing the evaluation criteria and judging others as you yourself will be judged.

Your homework is to add 5 more sentences to the wikispace, and to memorize the next four lines of your poem. If you decide to switch your poem, please let me know. You must be committed to a final choice by Friday.